Chapter 14: The wheels are starting to come off

It had finally come the day she dreaded, her first class with Cedric the Oaf. It was also taught by the most greasy human being she had met.

"Ah Yes Miss Delacour our new transfer student." Professor Snape said drawing out the 'student' then he gave a kind of half smirk "I think Mr. Diggory has a seat next to him available."

Foul git. She thought to herself but smiled and went and sat next to him.

"Listen I'm sorry about the other day. I didn…." He whispered to her before he was interrupted by Snape.

"5 points from Ravenclaw Mr. Diggory. This is a classroom not a social party."

The rest of the class she spent trying to avoid the furtive glances her way by not just the annoying oaf but all the boys in the class. She had just started to go through puberty and for a Veela that meant she was exuding some pretty strong allure and she was still too young to control it completely.

She was so creeped out by it all that she tried to rush out as soon as class ended but of course that wouldn't do.

"Listen will you let me explain." He said grabbing her wrist.

"Fine let go of me and I will listen."

He did so.

"Sorry but I've been trying to apologize ever since the opening feast. You are hard to catch."

"I'm still waiting for that apology." She said huffing

"Oh right, like I said I'm sorry about all that happened at the feast. I wasn't thinking straight. Honestly I have no problem with you being a Veela or even French, as long as I don't have to fight a war as your ally." He half laughed then abruptly stopped seeing her face.

"Are you quite finished?" She said, scowling.

The oaf gulped and nodded his head and she stomped off.

XXXX

Before I knew it D-day was here. I was standing in front of a bathroom waiting for the inevitable close encounters of the stinky kind. The boy hero was thoroughly confounded and all that was left was the waiting.

And the waiting. And the waiting. And the waiting.

Ah what the fuck, come on you big stinky bastard.

But it never came.

"Mr Diggory, whatever are you doing not in your common room? And in front of the girls loo no less." I jumped at that "You're lucky that Potter boy defeated that troll or you could be a smear on the wall." Professor Babbling said after rounding the corner.

"Ah I was just…. Wait did you say Harry defeated a troll?" I said, catching up with what she said.

"Yes apparently he wandered right into it. Poor dear. If it wasn't for him jumping onto it and jabbing it in the nose with his wand the troll wouldn't have dropped the club. Mr. Wealsy used a brilliantly timed levitation charm to lift the club and drop it on the trolls head. Harry is already living up to the hype."

What the fuck? Dammit Harry. You're like a walking fucking danger magnet.

Wait that sounds like it was Ron that beat the troll. Why did she say Harry did? Now I'm starting to get Ron's jealousy a little. He was overshadowed.

"Now why aren't you in your common room like you are supposed to be?"

"Well I heard that Mrs Granger had been crying in the bathroom for hours and I wanted to check on her. Unfortunately it lies beyond the gates of which no man shall pass." I said, the last part being in mock seriousness. "I didn't even know about the troll."

"Oh my. I will go check on her. Now you head onto Ravenclaw tower."

"Yes professor."

"Oh and Cedric I'll tell her you came to check on her. I think it would do good for her to know she has friends. I know what it's like to be ostracized." She said, the last part under her breath.

"I already consider her a friend and I hate hearing about all this."

"You're a good sort Cedric. Have a good night. I will talk with her."

"Good Night Professor" I said as I walked off.

Dammit woman, now I can't even manipulate her when she's at her emotional weakest. This night is a complete bust.

The plan was to rescue her but this time from mortal danger. But how could I anticipate the walking disaster that was Harry Potter?

I slumped my shoulders and sighed, all the traps and setup. I had created a masterpiece that would have made Kevin McCalister proud. All wasted.

I asked Bernard to clean them up and I just decided to go to the Room of Requirement. I hardly ever stay in my room in Ravenclaw tower anymore. Maybe I could at least get some work done.

I walked right into the Vanishing Cabinet and out the other into an old abandoned shack. It took a few hundred galleons and some help from the Hogwarts elves but I had the pair of Cabinets needed for instantaneous interspatial travel. I laughed all the time about the sheer ridiculousness of that.

I emerged from the cabinet in a shack on the outskirts of a quaint british village and within a quick broomride ride of my hideout. It was where I kept my more unsavory experiments as it was under fidelius.

There was a very confused muggle somewhere that wondered where there house was and one in London that was a few hundred quid richer but I had a completely secure location that only I knew of.

After I dismounted the broom and went into the house Bernard popped next to me. I guess I was the only human that knew of the place in any case.

"Bring me the stone Bernard. I need to make some silver."

It turned out the stone was even more overpowered than I originally thought. Not only could it take any metal and turn it into gold it could into any other metal. Even stuff like pure aluminum or titanium which is abundant in the earth's crust but is always heavily oxidized. It's extremely energy intensive to refine.

I still didn't know how to make magic work inside my understanding of science but this thing was a whole new level of bat shit insane. I mean that's how stars work by fusing elements together to make heavier elements. Except it worked in reverse as well because those were lower in atomic weight then something like lead. That was fission which was even more insane, as you know mushroom clouds.

"What I don't understand sir." He said as he brought me out of my musing "Is why Dumbledore didn't just place the stone under Fidelis?"

"Well it's possible he didn't have much faith in it. I mean the Potters can attest to it's lack of foolproofness. To me though that flaw in the fidelius I think is just that every chain has a weakest leak and Peter Petigrew was a particularly weak leak."

I had finally told Bernard about everything because I worked up the courage to confound wizards in the open. Well in the open at home. Amos and Abby signed him over to me. Now that he was mine he couldn't reveal any of my secrets even if he wanted to. I had been needing someone to unload all this onto and now I had a helper to be a sounding board as well.

He kind of had an Igor meets Alfred vibe going for him and everything.

"Though more likely, Dumbledore was using it as bait. See at this time he isn't sure Voldemort is still around. I think he is, wisly mind you, living by the belief that if there is no body the all powerful villain is not gone. He might be thinking if snakeface is still alive and attacked at Hogwarts he might even be able to defeat him once and for all while he's weak. At least that's if Dumbledore is not manipulative as hell and is hoping Harry and him duke it out and it destroys them both, but that seems particularly unlikely. He strikes me as arrogant not evil."

I placed the ingot onto the table and channeled magic through the stone while visualizing silver. It changed rapidly into the shiny metal.

"Why the silver sir?"

"I need to do some damage control. This phase of Lonely One was a bust. I figured I would go with my backup plan."

"Ah the rings I see sir."

I casted the transfiguration spell to turn a rock into a mould and then one into a crucible. Then I used the magical bellows I set up in the fireplace to melt the ingot before pouring into the mold.

Once it cooled I finished by applying the two-way charm.

"She might get the wrong impression if a boy gives her a ring."

"As long as I correct her impression it shouldn't be a problem."

"As you say sir?"

Can an elf look sceptical? Apparently so.